This Morning: More Defenders of Apple, More for Compuware?

By Tiernan Ray

Here are some things going on this morning in your world of tech:

Shares of Apple (AAPL) are up $4.11, or roughly .8%, at $522.70 after the stock got some more favorable mentions from the street in its defense this morning, including one from Argus Research‘s Jim Kelleher, and another from Merrill Lynch’s Keith Bachman, both saying that the selloff in the shares is overdone.

Brian Blair of Wedge Partners seems the most vociferous of the bunch, claiming that production of the iPhone for the March quarter has actually gone up, not down, in recent weeks, as some had contended, with the possibility Apple may sell 41 million to 44 million iPhone units that quarter.

In case you missed it,Blair was on TV with Bloomberg’s Jon Erlichmanyesterday explaining “the five major problems facing Apple.”

And Credit Suisse‘s Asian component analysts this morning reflected on the supply chain cuts that are at the heart of the concerns over Apple’s iPhone. The firm found there were some cuts here and there, but nothing uniform, and advised investors to stay away from shares of Catcher Technology, Chipbond and Largan, while adding to shares of TPK, AAC and Pegatron.

And on the patent front, there was mixed news for Apple. Samsung Electronics (005930KS) withdrew its lawsuits in multiple European countries for injunction against Apple products, as related by Bloomberg’s Aoife White. As White reports, the company’s statement on the matter goes, “Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice.”

But Apple was rejected by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in its bid to have 26 Samsung devices banned from U.S. sales, report Bloomberg’s Joel Rosenblatt and Karen Gullo. Koh said the parts of Samsung smartphones that had been found to infringe on Apple’s designs were “a limited part” of the products.

Shares of Compuware (CPWR), which shot up by 13% yesterday following the company’s having received an unsolicited $11-per-share take-out offer from private equity firm Elliot Management Corp., which Compuware is considering, are currently up 4 cents at $10.80.

Jefferies & Co.’s Aaron Schwartz, reflecting on the offer, writes that there are “multiple potential options for Compuware in the current bid could set in motion more active acquisition dialogue from both financial and strategic parties.”

Shares of Amazon.com (AMZN) are out $5.14, or roughly 2%, at $259, amidst some mixed coverage from the Street. Ross Sandler with RBC Capital raised his price target on the shares to $300 from $250, while reiterating a Buy rating, writing that Amazon might start to slow its spending on fulfillment centers next year, which, one would assume, would help its profits.

But Pacific Crest’s Chad Bartley, who has a Hold rating on Amazon shares, discusses the possibility that sales of the “Kindle Fire” tablet at retail have been “weak,” and he cut his Q4 estimate to 6 million from 8 million.

Shares of solid-state drive maker OCZ Technology (OCZ) are down a penny, or half a percent, at $1.89 after the company this morning said that the audit committee of its board has “substantially completed” its investigation into accounting irregularities, and that the company will restate the first quarter of its fiscal year 2013, which ended last May, and “certain quarters of fiscal 2012″ and the full year.

In case you missed, The New York Times‘s James Kanter and Steve Lohr today report that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission “appears to be ready to back off what had been the centerpiece of its antitrust pursuit of Google” while European Union regulators appear to be ready to move ahead more aggressively with antitrust charges against the search giant.

By way of background, see also Lohr’s excellent piece yesterday on the lawyers who had been partners in the antitrust suit against Microsoft (MSFT) a decade ago, Susan Creighton and Gary Reback, who are now on opposite sides of the legal battle over Google.

Google shares today are up $4.71, or 0.7%, at $725.20.

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